Monday, September 13, 2010

just had an amazing evening at the beach :) ... catching a few seconds of the sun before it dipped out of sight, running along the shore in the twilight just after, stretching ankle-deep in the ocean and watching gold silhouettes of surfers calling it a day, grabbing a tasty burrito as the stars came out, finding venus and mars with my google sky app, playing guitar in the dark with the sound of the waves for an hour or so, and finishing off with a hot shower in my new apartment.

Monday, December 14, 2009

I'm leaving tomorrow, it's so sad. I really had a good time here. Hmm... unfortunately I do have to pack, buy people things, and say goodbye to a few people last-minute, so I don't really have a lot of time to have a good, heart-warming "goodbye Mexico City" blog entry. I'll try, though.

Some thoughts... I really wish I would have kept this blog rolling while I was here. I learned a lot. I saw a lot of things. I can communicate in Spanish now. This is a really cool city. Honestly, if you haven't been here, you don't understand. An American's perception of Mexicans, Mexico, and Mexico City is so backwards... I'm really glad I came.

Ugh, so much I didn't blog about...

...museums, parks, the beautiful view and sunsets from my apartment, the dogs I live with that are adorable but poop in the tv-room all the time, learning how to cook cookies and "impressing" the Argentinians I live with, street food, the juice stand by my house with the juicer whose name translates to "Candy Jacob," Tepotzlán, how I'm now obsessed with the artist "Jesús Helguera," some of the great bargains I made in the markets, the culture and awesomeness of Lucha Libre, all the beautiful monuments and statues around the city and Avenida Reforma, my crazy search for an apartment, being able to decipher accents in Spanish for the first time, that one time I wandered into a weird clown-protest, Zócalo, finally finding Aztec dancing again and being disappointed, Mexicans' perceptions of me with my gringo hair, all about food and how Mexican food is different in the states, discovering that a street performer dressed as an angel taking pictures with children was actually a man, giving directions to a Mexican for the first time, the amazing subway system, the fun of power outages and water shortages, how you CAN drink the water here, that time I stumbled upon the creepy closet of dismembered dolls in our downstairs bathroom, not telling any of my visitors about the closet and letting them discover it on their own...

... two months of discovering a new culture and place. All I can really say is, if you get the chance to do something like this, DO IT!

Friday, December 4, 2009

Today I got some great pictures, bargained an awesome deal, and saw some awesome pyramids.

About an hour North of Mexico City (the old capital of the Aztec empire) is the 3rd largest pyramid in the world, the Pirámide del Sol (Pyramid of the Sun). It lies in the ruins of the city of Teotihuacan, a house-hold term for those in this area.

Teotihuacan was not Aztec, but a different culture that thrived about a millennium earlier. In the Aztec language, the name roughly means "birthplace of the gods." Really, I could believe that. These things are huge! And pictures cannot capture the sheer size. But of course I took some, several in fact. We got some great pictures that really make it look like we're doing awesome things in the world.

Laura and I. We're friends from Miami.

Climbing the Pyramid of the Sun

The view half-way up. Look at the horizon. Beautiful.

The top. Make this big. It's a really cool picture.

The Pyramid of the Moon from the Pyramid of the Sun.

Look how small those people are on the top. This is perhaps the only picture that accurately portrays it's size.

Forget the ancient city ruins! Check out this orange bug!

Resting. So many stairs.

Ah, what was that bargained deal I mentioned earlier? I know you were wondering this whole time! I saw a nice necklace that a guy wanted for 500 pesos... I bargained him down to 100! Somebody's getting a nice Christmas present this year!

Tuesday, December 1, 2009

I abruptly woke up this morning after my window rudely decided to shatter itself.

I knew it was going to be a great day. Oddly, the sky was a brilliant blue, which is a very rare day here. White fluffy clouds were blowing by from a strong wind, the same wind which coincidentally drove my window to suicide this morning. It must have been swinging open and shut and shut itself so hard it broke into pieces. The remnants of glass are now duct taped together, so more doesn't fall out. I live on the tenth floor, so if glass falls down to the sidewalk below... bad things can happen. Strangely, I couldn't find any pieces of glass anywhere at all. I'm not sure if they blew away or what.

Anyway, wind does strange things to a smog-ridden city. Tonight was a sight. The sky was painted like the fur of a pinto horse. Sprawling clouds reflected the city light, but cavities of sky gave way to black. And the wind continued, eventually pushing all the clouds away. I just walked home from my friend's house and looked up to see stars... over the Ciudad de México. There's a first for everything I guess.

Friday, November 20, 2009

Let me start with that, then continue with the story from the previous blog.

I was at a Day of the Dead festival with some people that was turning out to be an awful night... two hours in traffic and then we arrived too late for the main attraction. After scoping out the festivities, we started walking back to the car.

Then we heard some drums beating in a different section and a large crowd of people gathering around something. I was curious, but sort of just wanted to go home. I am so glad we stopped to see what it was.

There were over a hundred people, many dressed in full-out Aztec gear, dancing in a large circle around six or seven drums, which were being pounded on so hard I could feel it in my chest. Around all of their ankles they had some rattling beads. When they started dancing the whole area erupted into rhythmic percussive noise. It was awesome.

We watched for probably about twenty minutes. Then my friends wanted to eat, so I left them and returned. I had completely lost myself. Of course I memorized the footwork and I really wanted to jump in there with them, but obviously that might not have been appropriate.

I captured a bit on video. But just know... without feeling the drums and seeing the grand scheme of things, it doesn't at all compare to how neat it really was.

Needless to say. I am obsessed. After the show the dancers posed for pictures... I'm not sure if it was family, friends, or strangers that were asking to take pictures with them. It was one of the few times in my life I've actually wanted to have my picture taken with someone in costume. I really wish I had.

Since then I've been looking for other Aztec dancing, with no luck. I heard they dance in the city center a few times every week. If anyone has information as to when they do that, let me know. It was really cool. Did I say that, yet? It was really cool.

Twenty days ago I went to a "Day of the Dead" festival in a little village about an hour away. The holiday is interesting. It's actually two days, following Halloween, making a three-day creepy death fest. Of course, one has to remember that it is not intended to be a scary holiday, but because of America's influence with Halloween it is common to see children walking the streets with costumes all three nights, at least here in Mexico City. (I had two children come up to me on the street, as if I would just be carrying around candy all day... a walking candy dispenser. I gave the children nothing)

Anyway, decorations for the Day of the Dead are really interesting. We've actually seen a lot of the style in America, in other forms. It's called "Calaca," basically skeletons, but dressed up and... stylized. I don't know, and I'm sure there are people reading this who know a lot more about this than me.

Creepy, huh? But it's a really interesting look... very distinct.(Thank you Wikipedia for the picture)

We ended up getting to the festival too late and the cemetery (with all the decorated graves) was closed. We spent about two hours in traffic and it should have taken a little over forty-five minutes to get there. Fortunately there were still lots of people there and .... well, read on to the next blog entry. It made the whole trip worthwhile.

How many times in life have you been in a small mob, clamoring to get into a graveyard? I doubt I will find myself doing that again.